''Trypauchen vagina'', commonly known as the burrowing goby, is a species of

eel goby Amblyopinae is a subfamily of elongated mud-dwelling gobies commonly called eel gobies or worm gobies; it has been regarded as a subfamily of the family Gobiidae, while the 5th edition ''Fishes of the World'' classifies it as a subfamily of th ...

found in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region. It has an elongated body about in length. It is reddish-pink in color and possesses distinctive pouches in the upper edges of its gill covers. It lives in burrows in the silty and muddy bottoms of its

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

and brackish habitats. It has reduced eyes that are entirely covered with skin and the anterior portion of its head is protected by thick flesh. Both adaptations aid it in digging its burrows.

Description

''T. vagina'' has an elongated body about in length. The anal,

caudal Caudal may refer to: Anatomy * Caudal (anatomical term) (from Latin ''cauda''; tail), used to describe how close something is to the trailing end of an organism * Caudal artery, the portion of the dorsal aorta of a vertebrate that passes into the ...

, and two dorsal fins are fused together with membranous structures, forming a continuous margin around the posterior of the body. The

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two en ...

s are also completely fused together to form a cup-shaped suction disk. The pectoral fins have fifteen to twenty rays, with the upper rays longer than the lower rays. The blunt snout, chin, and the area around the eyes are covered by thickened flesh that help it in digging. The mouth slants obliquely. It has two rows of sharp canine-like teeth on both jaws. The teeth on the outer rows are larger than those on the inner rows. The eyes are small and completely covered by skin. No barbels are present on the chin. On the upper edges of the gill covers are distinctive oval holes that open into pouch-like cavities. These pouches are present in only a few of the genera in the subfamily Amblyopinae (the eel gobies). Their function is unknown. ''T. vagina'' is a blotchy reddish pink in coloration. The cheeks, the eye region, and the area behind the gills and above the pectoral fins are bright red. The fins are all colorless and translucent.

Distribution

This species can be found in the shallow

and brackish waters of the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the western Pacific Ocean, from Kuwait to New Caledonia. ''T. vagina'' was recently recorded for the first time in the coastal waters of Israel (2009) and Turkey (2010), following its introduction in the Mediterranean Sea via the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

. Atlas of Exotic Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea (Trypauchen_vagina). 2nd Edition. 2021. 366p. CIESM Publishers, Paris, Monaco.https://ciesm.org/atlas/fishes_2nd_edition/Trypauchen_vagina.pdf

Ecology

As its common name suggests, ''T. vagina'' lives in burrows in the silty or muddy bottoms of

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

and coastal areas. It is omnivorous, mostly preying on small crustaceans that wander near its burrows.

Taxonomy

''T. vagina'' was first described as ''Gobius vagina'' by the German

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

s Marcus Elieser Bloch and Johann Gottlob Schneider in 1801. It is the type species of the genus ''

Trypauchen ''Trypauchen'' is a genus of burrowing gobies native to the Indo-Pacific region. It is classified under the subfamily Amblyopinae of the family Gobiidae. The name is derived from Ancient Greek τρύπα (''trupa'', "hole") and αυχενος ('' ...

'', which includes only one other species, '' Trypauchen pelaeos''. The genus was established in 1837 by the French zoologist

Achille Valenciennes Achille Valenciennes (9 August 1794 – 13 April 1865) was a French zoologist. Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. His study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology. ...

. The generic name is derived from Ancient Greek τρύπα (''trupa'', "hole") and αυχενος (''aukhenos'', "neck"). The specific name is from Latin ''vagina'', meaning "sword sheath". ''T. vagina'' is classified under the subfamily Amblyopinae of the goby family Gobiidae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1894923 Trypauchen Fish described in 1801